In many large or industrial welding and cutting operations it is desirable to use a tractor drive unit to carry the welding or cutting device, where the tractor drive unit is mounted on rails or guides which control the movement of the tractor unit. That is, typically, the rails or guides keep the tractor unit, and this the welding/cutting device, following a desired line to ensure that the welding or cutting operation follows a desired path. However, in many instances the rails or guides can become warped bent or otherwise cause the welding and cutting operation to deviate from its desired route, causing a defective operation. Some systems exist which track the weld or cutting joint to control the operation of the welding/cutting operation, but very little is done to compensate for deviations in the rails/guides.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.